At least seven members of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s security team and two soldiers were injured in a roadside bombing ambush by suspected Muslim militants. The attack took place ahead of the president’s planned visit to the south of the country, AFP reported citing the president and the Armed Forces.

“My advance party was ambushed a while ago. The Presidential
Security Group was hit by an IED.” Duterte
said.

An explosive device planted along the road detonated when the presidential convoy headed to Marawi, the capital of Lanao del Sur province on the island of Mindanao, the second-largest island of the Philippines. “The truck carrying the president’s advance security detail was hit by an improvised explosive device,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, as cited by Reuters. “There was no firefight.”

“The convoy was ambushed using an IED while traversing from Iligan City to Marawi City,” Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said. The injured men were immediately airlifted to safety. Members of the president’s official media team were also in the convoy, but were unharmed.

Soldiers carry on a stretcher a wounded member of Duterte’s presidential security groupwho was airlifted at an army camp in Cagayan de Oro after being hit in a roadside bomb attack

Lorenzana said that he advised Duterte to cancel his visit to Marawi, scheduled for Wednesday, as the situation is “still not under control.” The president chose to ignore the advice.

Never one to take the easy way out, the combative Duterte said that “The advice was to postpone. I said no, I will go there. And if possible, take the same route,” the president was cited by Reuters, and added that“Maybe we can have a little gunfight here, gunfight there.”